Yahoo & Google Trying New Partnership

Some might remember that back in 2008 Yahoo and Google tried to partner on search, but the Department of Justice decided that Google powering search for Yahoo would deprive the users of the benefit of competition. Naturally, rather than risking an anti-trust suit in the U.S, both companies backed out.

Yahoo went on to make a much less lucrative deal with Microsoft. At that point, Yahoo really had no other choice as the company needed the partnership and the resources desperately.

Microsoft – Yahoo Deal – What happened There?

According to Yahoo’s investor report for the 3rd Quarter of 2015, the company has partnered with Google and will display Google ads and searches in some of the searches. Some might wonder how this is possible considering the fact that Yahoo already has a deal with Microsoft.

But the deal with Microsoft was altered earlier this year in April. Prior to the revision, Yahoo had to display Bing ads on all its desktop searches. On mobile, it was allowed to display anything it liked.

According to the altered deal, Yahoo needs to direct 51% of its desktop search traffic to Bing ads, it can direct the remaining search traffic to others, like Google, or display its own ads. Naturally, after the revision to the Microsoft-Yahoo deal was announced, search experts, marketers, and other industry insiders predicted that a Google-Yahoo deal was on the cards.

What Does the Google Deal Say?

According to the official documentation, the agreement is in place for just 3 years. There are also protections in place that would allow the companies to end the agreement early. This is mostly because Google is facing Anti-Trust investigations in the EU and India.

Both of these political heavyweights are mentioned in the agreement. If there are any objections from US, the European Union, and India, the agreement would be terminated. Also noteworthy is the fact that Yahoo won’t be displaying Google ads to searchers originating from Europe. This is to avoid further criticism from EU.

So, as of now, Yahoo can display Google ads to, at maximum, 49% of its desktop searches and can direct all of its mobile searches to Google if it wants to.

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